Page 29 of Tommy

From the art I’d seen on those covers, I could tell that was an absolute crime. “Go sit in the lounge, I’ll bring the cocoa in, and then we can discuss where you’re setting this fort up.”

He squealed, all giddy. The first time I’d seen the little appear from behind his eyes. “Yay!” He skittered off, sliding around as he went off into the lounge.

On a tray, I put both mugs of cocoa and the comic books. While Tommy was showing a new side to himself, I was also showing a new side to myself. A side I’d kept to myself for such a long time, it was almost strange to feel those old emotions rear their head in my direction.

Tommy sat in front of the fire on the furry rug. Pip cuddled up beside him, still being playful and trying to bite at the tail he was sat on. “Do you decorate for Christmas?” he asked.

I placed the tray on the coffee table. “Not for many years,” I told him, relaxing into the comfy sofa. “It would mean cutting a pine down, hauling it back, and then pulling whatever decorations I could salvage from storage.” In general, I didn’t celebrate Christmas. It was just another day of the year for me. June often invited me to spend the day with her, or she’d threaten to come to the ranch. Thankfully, neither option came as the road got snow heavy coming in and out.

“I could help,” he said. “I can’t say I’ve used an axe.”

“Oh, here we go again,” I laughed. “I don’t think I want you wielding an axe.” I grabbed the first comic book from the stack. “And where would it even go?”

“In here.” He gestured to the lounge. “It’s the biggest room. It’s not like we’re missing out on any space. We could push that arm chair slightly to the side, and then with the view, we could have the tree set up, and—” he gasped. “You said you didn’t have outlets.” He jumped out, and once more, Pip was in hyperactive, chasing him.

My brows raised up my forehead as I stared at him, wondering where he was going. “We don’t have many, but we have them.”

He went right for the outlets in the wall. “What are these?”

“Not my doing,” I said. “The owners have their grandkids come with them on occasion in the summer, so they’ve got to charge their thingies.”

“Their iPads,” he said. “And why not in the cabins?”

“That would require a whole electrical rewiring for somewhere that isn’t always in use,” I said. “But if you want to charge you devices, you can.”

Tommy went quiet by the window, staring, he mumbled something under his breath.

“As long as you don’t plug them all in at once, the generator juice still runs the fridge,” I said.

“I think the storm might be here already,” he said. “Looks like there’s so much mist.”

I stood behind him, my chest close to his back, almost touching him. “It’ll take a couple hours to reach us,” I whispered to him.

Startled, he spun on the foot of his onesie, falling right into me. With an arm around his back, I held him in place, his bodies together. His heart beat echoed throughout his entire body. “We’ll be safe in here, right?”

Helping him upright on his two feet, I kept my hand behind his back. “Of course. I can put the radio on. We getthatsignal out here, before you go off about having no internet connection.”

“You’re right, I was going to ask about that again.”

The truth was, there were amplifiers that the owners installed for signal and internet, they sucked a whole lot of electricity, and I rarely ever needed to use it. The landline phone worked fine enough if I needed to call out or catch up with someone. And it wasn’t like I could even recall the password of my email address.

“You wanna call your friends still?” I asked. “You know, before the storm reaches. It’s probably best.”

“Sure, but you have to get me blankets for the fort,” he said.

I had mentioned that his fort was lacking, and I’d built much better ones before. It might’ve been my way of getting myself involved even if I wasn’t aware of what I was doing. There was a fun to be found in playing the role Tommy would soon look to assign me, but I wasn’t going to push it.

The telephone was on the wall, which he took a chair to sit beside it. I assumed that meant he would be taking his time, forgetting that he was still struggling with the pain from riding Belle. I felt mostly to blame for it, knowing I should’ve told him to stay on the saddle. I barely got to crack the front of the comic book as I was forced under the obligation of resourcing blankets and building a fort.

I was rusty at fort building. I might’ve helped with the construction of the cabins and parts of this house, but pillow and blanket forts were a beast that often defied all the laws. From the linen closet, I grabbed as many blankets as I could find, alongside spare pillows and throw cushions I never had out when the owners weren’t here. They cared about that kind of aesthetic stuff, while I found it to be yet another thing the dogs could slobber over and need washing.

Tommy caught me while on the phone. “Bring me my cocoa,” he said.

With a duvet bundled in my arms, I stopped in my tracks and stared at him. “I know there was something else you’ve got to say.”

“Uh.” He pulled the receiver from his ear. “Please.” He pushed his bottom lip out into a pout. “Or pretty please.”

“It doesn’t have to be pretty, but always please,” I told him. “How long do you think you’re going to be?”

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